I bought a copy and it finally showed up in the mail today. I haven't started it yet, but let's get to talkin'.

One of the little moments I adored in Crooked Little Vein was when the detective Mike McGill put the gun away in his office before going on the adventure. I read that as indicative of Ellis saying "yes there's a detective and a crime but it's not gonna be like that." Is there any moment like that in your reading of Gun Machine?

I just finished it. Kindle 3G FTW. Hard copy later, when I don't have to fight for one.

Strong, nuanced female characters abound, along with eminently quotable dialogue and a wealth of strange days vignettes. I'll be interested to hear what all y'all think about a certain tactic related to villain nomenclature. It'll become clear what I mean.

I'm really looking forward to picking this up, but I have to wait for my US hardcover to ship. The Aussie distributors thought it'd be totally cool to price the AU Kindle edition above the US hardcover, so I have to wait and they're out a sale.

Book arrived on Thursday. Finished it yesterday. Pretty much read it straight thru, minus interruptions for work.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. The first and most obvious observation I was able to make is regarding Warren's evolution in style. There is an economy of language present here. I don't know if it's just because I followed along through the process as it was being written, but the finished product feels very deliberate... very... honed. The narrative depictions of violence are as graphic as anything TV or film is able to offer, and the reader is introduced to the recurring character of "brain matter" by the end of Chapter 1.

My absolute favorite narrative device is the experience of schizophrenia and psychosis from the Hunter's perspective. The effect of

flashing back and forth between New Manhattan and Old Manhattan

is expertly achieved throughout the book.

Having been tuned into Warren Ellis's broadcast frequency for a number of years now, I especially enjoyed seeing all of the various threads of interest coalesce into a coherent experience of the present world. Characters subjectively experiencing over-laying maps of information, history, experience, etc., suffused with the most modern technological trappings of 2012. It occurred to me while reading (an obvious observation, in retrospect, but one that I have thus far failed to intellectualize) that the technological capabilities within the world of a work of fiction are limited by the author's awareness of present technological advancements. Obviously, Warren remains attuned to the frontiers of modern technological advances and these permeate the narrative.

For instance, in William Gibson's 2002 novel Pattern Recognition, the protagonist's ability to remotely access the internet is made possible only by her high-level connections and at great expense. Ten years later, of course, anyone is able to afford and become their own mobile wi-fi hotspot, even a NYC detective who's just going through the motions. Though, as an info-philiac, it absolutely fits the character.

I'm sure that, in my haste to experience this work (which I've eagerly anticipated since the first announcement of the Mulholland deal), a 2nd reading or listening to audiobooks, will yield further enjoyment and possibly greater insights.

I don't know - there's been one place for me so far where a well drawn character suddenly stopped speaking in character and started speaking as Warren - but - this could just be me as the info he was dumping was nearly verbatim from Warren's website which I knew/remembered when many wouldn't.

It took me out of the story though because it wasn't from the character or part of the narrative - it was starry wisdom.

@TF this is one thing that gets me as well and is of course because I am all up on his writings about everything. But when I'm reading stuff that I've already read word for word from one of his posts it totally pulls me out. Crooked Little Vein did this to me a lot more, so I was glad that it wasn't as much in Gun Machine, save for a few bits here and there.

I devoured the book in a 6 hour binge. I likely need to read it again, slower, to get a better feel for it. But I still adored it tremendously.

Well... now that you put it that way, I may have noticed something like that a time or two. There were moments when I noticed Detective Tallow behaving more like Warren than the John Tallow that had been revealed to us. So... yeah.

Just got my latest Machine Vision newsletter from Warren, with a link to Book Trailer #2. Apparently, it's exclusive at Vulture.com and the person they got to write the 130 words to accompany the trailer, a Mr. Jesse David Fox, couldn't be bothered to distinguish Warren as a comic-book writer, instead of artist. Also, he concludes that "the devil is somehow behind" everything that happens in Gun Machine. Nice work, Mr. "Journalist". Phoning it in on this one, huh?

This might be the work of the imprint, but Gun Machine feels lean, which I think is to its benefit. I started it, got 60 pages in, went to bed, woke up the next day, read another 120 on my commute to and from work, then went to a bar, had two beers and finished it. Props to the editor. I liked the book. I've only been to NYC a couple times and if Warren Ellis hadn't said that he used Google Street View, I never would have guessed.

I'm going to read through it again, since I know I missed things.

Spoiler thoughts:

1. Did anyone else get a slight From Hell vibe on the crazy gun killer?2. Warren Ellis' three main characters were back. You had Wacky Science Guy, Hyper Competent Woman With A Fetish and The Straight Man On The Skids. I missed those guys.3. The only dialogue/info dump that took me out of the narrative was the one when a businessman explains why he purchased a building. That was it.4. I totally thought he was gonna kill Tallow when Tallow delivered the "laying everything out" discussion at dinner.

Really good, but different than previous.CROOKED LITTLE VEIN was a full on Ellis punch in the face, full tilt Ellis-isms, read a lot like his comics. GUN MACHINE seemed more like a book, written as a book. Lean, fast, good dialogue, nice visuals in the prose, less needing to kick one in the nuts, but also some nice refinements. Some reviews have been saying the ending is a bit anti-climatic, but this seemed like something that was made to be adapted into a TV show/movie. Everything seemed filmable, which isn't a bad thing. Seemed like someone who was really good at getting the visuals of the comics medium to work with the words tried that with straight prose and succeeded. The whole book seemed less explosive than CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, but that may be editing and wanting to give it a chance to move to other mediums.

I just finished the book. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Quite different from Crooked Little Vein, which I also enjoyed quite a bit. Crooked Little Vein was very 'Spider Jerusalem', where I find Gun Machine to be more 'Elijah Snow'. I have to go back and re-read CLV and then follow it with Gun Machine, to see if I still feel the same, but that comparison kind of got in my head about half way through and it stuck til the end. Good read, though.